At the edge of the marsh in Piper Park, wedged between soccer and softball fields, a sunny patch of garden shines.

Cabbage, kale and alliums stand near tomato, bean and squash starts. Bees and butterflies rush between blooms of peonies, dahlias, roses and natives. Birds sing from bean poles and lizards scurry between beds. A perfectly pruned orchard presides over the entire scene.

A glimpse behind the gates and inside the workings of the Larkspur Community Garden reveals how a hive of neighbors have spent nearly 45 years transforming a former dump site into a thriving habitat.

LCF spoke with volunteer coordinator Stephen Conner about the history of the garden, how it grows and why the waiting list for plots is years-long.

LCF: How did the Larkspur Community Garden start?

Stephen Conner: This garden began in 1982 with Larkspur Parks and Recreation commissioner Sandy Blauvelt and director Nancy Spivey. They knew that getting your hands in the soil would be as therapeutic and as recreational has all the other activities at Piper Park. 

The park itself was still in its early days. The site that became Piper Park was originally the town dump – not for garbage but for soil and cement. In 1971, the city officially took over the site and began to make it into a park. But this space was just a big open part of the lot left between ball fields. The trucks would still come in, dump their cement and soil, and later come back to take it out again for projects.

Sandy and Nancy were able to carve out this space to create the Larkspur Community Garden. The city gave us two long aisles for our first garden, and now we have grown to 73 plots. 

For almost 45 years, all of our gardeners have taken pride in caring for this special place. We began with dirt left from years of bay landfill and transformed it into friable garden soil, with organic matter for root growth and drainage. The garden has become very popular and has a waiting list of a few years, but it is worth it!

LCF: What has been the most rewarding part of managing the garden?

Conner:  Oh, I don’t do this alone. The Larkspur Community Garden logo reads “People who care, grow together.” We are a community.

Of course, I share garden techniques I have learned from books and many years of landscaping in this exact location. But all of our gardeners give plant advice, offer to help water when you are away and share harvests. 

The thing about gardening is that every year is different. You think you know what you’re doing and then the weather changes or the bugs change or something doesn’t grow where it grew perfectly last year.

So you keep learning all the time. That’s part of what keeps it interesting.

We also learn from our four other coordinators.  Pat Burns oversees the joys and concerns of 20 gardens and gardeners. Jill Hutchinson takes care of our rose garden and coordinates weekly volunteers for our own garden-grown donations to the St. Vincent de Paul Society and the Marin Food Bank. Kevin Arthur manages our compost soil-making throughout the year. And Katherine Jones takes care of an orchard of 23 fruit trees by instructing gardeners on how to dormant spray, properly prune, remove weeds and thin fruit.

A community garden is one of the few places left where people of different ages and backgrounds naturally spend time together. Somebody’s out here in their twenties next to somebody in their eighties, and they’re talking about tomatoes.

That’s valuable. We don’t have enough places like that anymore.

LCF: How do gardeners work as a community?

Conner:  Each gardener is responsible for the maintenance of their garden, which is not only planting, watering, weeding, harvesting and caring for their plot but improving the soil, as well. Organic gardening has nothing to do with feeding the plant — it has everything to do with improving and feeding the soil.

The best soil helps keep the plant as healthy as possible and fights off insects and disease. And that way you can grow organically and you don’t have to bring in all these chemicals.

We are not just growing vegetables out here. We try to create habitat. So if you plant for pollinators and birds and beneficial insects, then your garden becomes healthier on its own.

You start seeing more bees, more butterflies, more birds—then everything works better together.

We also have two work days each year, one in March and one in October. On those days, we gather as a whole community of gardeners. We have a short meeting and then we work on some common projects.  After that we have a potluck outside. 

We like what we do together and we like each other. 

LCF: What are the challenges you have encountered managing the garden?

Conner:  There are definitely rules we ask you to try to follow in your own plot.  For example, given the angle of the sun when it hits your spot, you need to place a trellis or plant tall things on a certain side, because when the sun rises here and sets there, something tall might shade your neighbor’s plot. 

We recently replaced some of the sideboards that had rotted out. Now we ask people not to grow things over them, not to allow dirt and mulch to grow on them—basically try to keep them dry so that we will have them for another 50 years.

The garden shed is another focus of our organizational efforts. The original shed was flimsy and sometimes the wind would pick the whole thing up and blow it around. The city later helped us put in this permanent one and actually the Larkspur Community Foundation funded a grant that enabled us to paint it and clean it up so it looks really good. 

My wife Margaret designed it to be wheelchair accessible and I created tool bins that are color coordinated. It looks like Barney’s Playhouse, because we’ve got 73 gardeners, and we need the tools to be put back so everyone can find them.

LCF: How can someone join the garden?

Conner: Gardeners from Larkspur and Greenbrae can visit our website at http://larkspurgarden.weebly.com for all the information about the garden and add their name to the waiting list for a plot. The list is quite long—we have about 50 people on it right now. This year, we added 7 new people to the garden, so it will take a few years to get near the top. But every year, people drop off for one reason or another so you never know!

LCF: How has the garden expanded and changed ?

Conner: Over the years, we were able to annex this large back section and added 12 more garden plots and planted the orchard. The city has always been very concerned about having anything run off from the garden into the marsh so we have worked hard to be a responsible neighbor. 

Years ago, I came across an English garden expert who was very good with textures and colors. She says there are some colors that do well planted next to each other and some that should never be near each other. So we designed one section of the garden as a color garden. I take care of the white garden. My wife does the red garden. We have a purple garden. Then we have a butterfly garden. 

Outside the fence, there are gardens that the public can enjoy. Margaret has turned the western side facing Mt. Tam into what we call the “Maple Tree Garden,” with a variety of natives and other plants that can survive the nightly passing of hungry deer.

I added the garden in front. It was a very sterile spot but the city let me plant some things and it has become our xeriscape garden. It requires little water and it keeps growing and filling in—and bringing in pollinators.

All of these common gardens have been mostly planted with “rescue” plants. People throw away plants all the time. I grab them, plant them and say, “Well, you’re on your own now.” And if they can make it, they do—and many do! So I don’t have hardly any money invested here at all.

LCF: What makes Larkspur’s community garden unique?

Conner: One of the things that makes this garden special is the setting. You’re right next to the marsh, and the light changes every evening. The birds come through at sunset and sometimes the sky turns pink. 

People come to work in their plots and then they just stop and stand there, looking out at the scene.

We used to have benches out here on cement blocks. Later, the city put in these nicer ones. So I always encourage my gardeners to come out, have a seat on a bench, sip a hot toddy and watch the sunset over the marsh.